Children in particular are suffering from the escalating violence in Eastern Congo

It could happen at any time, says Germain Lubango. The Congolese aid worker from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and his wife are ready to leave when the violent rebels of M23 attack the metropolis of Goma, their hometown in eastern Congo. To prevent this, the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Monusco, announced a joint operation with the Congolese army on Friday. Smaller towns and villages on the border with Rwanda are already in the hands of the militia. “More and more people are forced to leave their homes,” says Lubango.

The main electricity lines to Goma were out of action at the beginning of this week due to escalation of fighting in the area. Hospitals and water systems were left without power. On the outskirts of Goma are huge camps for displaced people who depend on pumping stations for clean water that do not function without electricity.

Fighting between the army and rebels has flared up around the eastern Congolese city of Goma.

In October, after six months of relative calm, violence flared up again between the Congolese government army and M23, supported by neighboring country Rwanda. According to M23, the government is not adhering to ceasefire agreements. The government in turn accuses the group of violations. Partly due to this violence, almost 7 million inhabitants have fled in the largest African country south of the Sahara. It is the highest number of displaced people ever recorded, making it one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world, according to the UN Organization for Migration (IOM).

On a Instagram video by AFP photojournalist Huquet Alexis on October 26, dozens of residents in the eastern mountain town of Bambo can be seen running away from violence with some bags in their hands. Carrying young children on their backs or babies strapped to their bellies. Children are most at risk during this humanitarian disaster: not only are they extra vulnerable to (sexual) violence, but also to malnutrition, diseases, forced labor and recruitment by militias.

Malnutrition

The number of malnourished children is increasing rapidly and has doubled since last year, according to aid organization MSF. Every month, an average of eight hundred children are admitted to hospital due to acute malnutrition. “Residents cannot harvest their crops if armed groups occupy an area or block roads,” says Lubango. People flee to camps for internally displaced persons where they are safe from violence, but no humanitarian aid is received there either. “The trade-off is dying from violence or from malnutrition.”

The trade-off is dying from violence or malnutrition

Parents in hospitals tell the MSF on the spot that their children’s faces and bodies swell and their eyes look empty. Some die. The treatment for malnourished children often consists of the nutritious peanut butter mixture Plumpy Nut, but there is a serious shortage of this. The limited emergency aid is linked to a financing crisis in the aid sector. As hunger reaches record highs, food aid donations have fallen by about half.

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“Local and international NGOs have already stopped their programs,” says the aid worker. “For example, the termination of a sanitation program caused a new cholera outbreak. The UN announced an increase in aid in August, but this is not reflected in the field.”

And while help is desperately needed. For the third year in a row, Congo is experiencing the worst violations of children’s rights worldwide, UNICEF reported at the end of September. The recruitment and use of children in armed groups increased by 45 percent in the first six months of the year, some as young as five years old. Congo has also had the world’s highest number of cases of sexual violence against children committed by fighters as of 2021.

During aid programs, Lubango met girls and women who are so afraid of being raped that they take the pill as a preventive measure, he says. “In addition to diseases such as cholera, measles and monkeypox, we are also seeing an increase in the number of HIV cases,” says the aid worker.

International attention

The violence takes place against the backdrop of a battle for this resource-rich area that goes back decades. Uganda and Rwanda benefit from Congolese raw materials and their economies have become increasingly dependent on smuggling. Only a fraction of the export of gold, among other things, remains in the hands of Congo itself, the UN concluded.

Many Congolese citizens believe that the UN troops, which have been in the country since the beginning of this century, are doing too little to combat the violence. President Felix Tshisekedi requested an accelerated withdrawal of the peace mission at the end of September. The international community has a more wait-and-see attitude than eleven years ago, when the M23 rebels succeeded in taking Goma. In response, countries such as the Netherlands stopped part of their development aid to Rwanda. Now that history is in danger of repeating itself, those same sounds no longer sound. For example, French President Emmanuel Macron has embraced President Kagame as an ally. And criticism also continues from the United Kingdom, possibly to avoid endangering the controversial deal to send British asylum seekers to Rwanda.

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However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week called both the president of Congo and his counterpart in Rwanda and called on both to “take measures to de-escalate the situation, including removing troops at the border.” Because there will be elections in Congo in December, it is extra important that the situation improves. If there is disagreement about the conduct of the election process, violence will only increase further, warns the think tank International Crisis Group.